You Can Help Our Asylum Seeker Students Stay in Class

You Can Help Our Asylum Seeker Students Stay in Class

PostedSeptember 12, 2017

A message from Deb Vallely, Asylum Seeker Programs Coordinator

Dear friends,

As you may know, PRACE has been working with and supporting people seeking asylum for a number of years now. We have seen how vital English language classes are to this group as means of connecting them with their new community and setting a foundation for future learning opportunities and improving their life circumstances.

We are currently fundraising for donations to help support our students and keep them in classes.

I have been working with this group, supporting people seeking asylum for the past 4 years. During this time none of our asylum seeker students were able to access full time classes. The classes they could access were 3 hours per week only and these were funded by a grant from the Readings Foundation to pay a teacher and money we raised at the ‘Real Conversations’ Art Show in 2014.

Over the years small amounts of money have been made available by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection for 8 hours per week for 10 week blocks. This, compared to new migrants who are offered 510 hours of study, is a stark reminder of how disadvantaged people seeking asylum are.

However, as of January 1st 2017 the Victorian State Government announced that they would approve asylum seekers being able to attend/access full time English classes. This is a huge swing around from the past and has seen our Asylum Seeker Community being able to enrol in classes 4 days per week at the correct level for their language.

The catch is that they have to pay for the classes, be it at a very reduced rate (Concession Rate).

So this is where you all come in …

Our students are unable to pay the $393 for a year of study so I am coming to you for assistance. If you are able to donate whatever you can to assist in payment for their fees this would be wonderful.

The donation is tax deductible and will be deeply appreciated by our students.

PRACE provides support in MYKI costs, school materials and food from the Bread Brigade weekly, but help with fees would ease the worry of our asylum seekers who would pay the fees if they could.

You will be supporting 7 students to achieve the goals of learning English.